With the help of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the fall from grace, this chapter sums up the general external perspective that the argument of the book is promoting. It is suggested that we can ...
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With the help of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the fall from grace, this chapter sums up the general external perspective that the argument of the book is promoting. It is suggested that we can reconcile a robust realism, and a conception of the world as it is in itself with a thoroughly contextualist and anti-foundationalist account of intentionality and knowledge.Less

After the Fall

Robert C. Stalnaker

Published in print: 2008-07-24

With the help of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the fall from grace, this chapter sums up the general external perspective that the argument of the book is promoting. It is suggested that we can reconcile a robust realism, and a conception of the world as it is in itself with a thoroughly contextualist and anti-foundationalist account of intentionality and knowledge.

Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human ...
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Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, and many other books. His science fiction novel, Contact, was made into a popular, major motion picture in 1997. Sagan is well known for his interests in extra-terrestrial life and is closely linked to the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). As a scientist, Sagan educated the public about “Nuclear Winter”, the idea that a nuclear war could precipitate an unprecedented ice age that might render the Earth largely uninhabitable. Sagan became notorious in certain circles for his forays into religion, which he viewed with skepticism.Less

A Light in the Darkness : Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

Published in print: 2007-01-01

Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, and many other books. His science fiction novel, Contact, was made into a popular, major motion picture in 1997. Sagan is well known for his interests in extra-terrestrial life and is closely linked to the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). As a scientist, Sagan educated the public about “Nuclear Winter”, the idea that a nuclear war could precipitate an unprecedented ice age that might render the Earth largely uninhabitable. Sagan became notorious in certain circles for his forays into religion, which he viewed with skepticism.

In De civitate Dei book XIII, Augustine argues that bodily death is always a bad thing in itself. Careful consideration of the story of the fall from Eden shows it to be the very opposite of the ...
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In De civitate Dei book XIII, Augustine argues that bodily death is always a bad thing in itself. Careful consideration of the story of the fall from Eden shows it to be the very opposite of the Platonic fall myth. The Eden story sees the union of body and soul as natural and the separation as a punishment. The Platonic fall sees the separation of the soul as natural and the union with the body as a punishment. Augustine's approach to death is thus in sharp contrast to that of Ambrose.Less

Not Good for Anyone: Death in the Thought of Augustine of Hippo

David Albert Jones

Published in print: 2007-07-01

In De civitate Dei book XIII, Augustine argues that bodily death is always a bad thing in itself. Careful consideration of the story of the fall from Eden shows it to be the very opposite of the Platonic fall myth. The Eden story sees the union of body and soul as natural and the separation as a punishment. The Platonic fall sees the separation of the soul as natural and the union with the body as a punishment. Augustine's approach to death is thus in sharp contrast to that of Ambrose.

The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes ...
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The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes fails in the act of creating. This “low” view of God is matched by humankind’s portrayal as a “groundling,” a product of God’s work with dirt, in contrast to the “image of God” portrayal in Genesis 1. Written in view of ancient Israel’s mixed experience with monarchy, the Garden narrative focuses on the human family and its rise to power. As such, it invites dialogue with the anthropological account of human evolution, the human tree of life. Both accounts affirm the common ground of biological life and the challenging transitions that have shaped humanity’s development and ascendancy in creation. Evolutionary science reinterprets the account of the “Fall” of humanity in powerfully ecological ways.Less

The Ground of Being : The Drama of Dirt in Genesis 2:4b–3:24

William P. Brown

Published in print: 2010-01-29

The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes fails in the act of creating. This “low” view of God is matched by humankind’s portrayal as a “groundling,” a product of God’s work with dirt, in contrast to the “image of God” portrayal in Genesis 1. Written in view of ancient Israel’s mixed experience with monarchy, the Garden narrative focuses on the human family and its rise to power. As such, it invites dialogue with the anthropological account of human evolution, the human tree of life. Both accounts affirm the common ground of biological life and the challenging transitions that have shaped humanity’s development and ascendancy in creation. Evolutionary science reinterprets the account of the “Fall” of humanity in powerfully ecological ways.

Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he ...
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Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he could not agree with Pelagians that in marriage lust was good in moderation. He chose a weak ground for calling lust a bad thing, namely that it was disobedient to will. He thought that in the Garden of Eden, either sex would have been possible without lust, or lust would have been obedient to will. The Pelagian, Bishop Julian of Eclanum, replied that the desire to eat or drink, salivation, digestion, and sleep are also not commanded by will, but like lust, have the consent of will, and sleep, like lust, impedes thought, yet Augustine does not deplore them. Elsewhere, Augustine worried whether lustful dreams were sinful, for the opposite reason that the will does consent.Less

Augustine On Lust and the Will

Richard Sorabji

Published in print: 2002-09-05

Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he could not agree with Pelagians that in marriage lust was good in moderation. He chose a weak ground for calling lust a bad thing, namely that it was disobedient to will. He thought that in the Garden of Eden, either sex would have been possible without lust, or lust would have been obedient to will. The Pelagian, Bishop Julian of Eclanum, replied that the desire to eat or drink, salivation, digestion, and sleep are also not commanded by will, but like lust, have the consent of will, and sleep, like lust, impedes thought, yet Augustine does not deplore them. Elsewhere, Augustine worried whether lustful dreams were sinful, for the opposite reason that the will does consent.

The chapter begins with an examination of three philosophical theses about free will, each of which would, if true, refute Theist's attempt to reply to the argument from evil by employing the ...
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The chapter begins with an examination of three philosophical theses about free will, each of which would, if true, refute Theist's attempt to reply to the argument from evil by employing the free-will defence: compatibilism; the incompatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge; and the existence of ‘middle knowledge’. It is shown how Theist can cast sufficient doubt on these theses to block Atheist's attempt at conversion. The body of the chapter is devoted to Atheist's contention that the free-will defence cannot account for ‘natural evil’. Theist is represented as employing a version of the free-will defence that postulates a primordial separation of our remote ancestors from God, and as defending the conclusion that according to this story, the suffering of human beings that is caused proximately by natural evils might also be remotely caused by the abuse of free will.Less

The Global Argument Continued

Peter van Inwagen

Published in print: 2006-06-08

The chapter begins with an examination of three philosophical theses about free will, each of which would, if true, refute Theist's attempt to reply to the argument from evil by employing the free-will defence: compatibilism; the incompatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge; and the existence of ‘middle knowledge’. It is shown how Theist can cast sufficient doubt on these theses to block Atheist's attempt at conversion. The body of the chapter is devoted to Atheist's contention that the free-will defence cannot account for ‘natural evil’. Theist is represented as employing a version of the free-will defence that postulates a primordial separation of our remote ancestors from God, and as defending the conclusion that according to this story, the suffering of human beings that is caused proximately by natural evils might also be remotely caused by the abuse of free will.

Local arguments from evil proceed not from a premise about ‘all the evils of the world’, but from a premise about a single horrible event. They take the form, ‘If there were a God, that would not ...
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Local arguments from evil proceed not from a premise about ‘all the evils of the world’, but from a premise about a single horrible event. They take the form, ‘If there were a God, that would not have happened’. In this chapter, it is conceded that even if Theist's arguments in the two previous chapters are indisputably correct, they do not refute the local argument, which is an argument of a quite different kind. The central argument of the chapter is a defence of the following thesis: if Theist's response to the global argument is accepted, it provides materials from which a reply to the local argument can be constructed. This reply turns on considerations of vagueness much like those considered in philosophical discussions of the sorites paradox.Less

The Local Argument from Evil

Peter van Inwagen

Published in print: 2006-06-08

Local arguments from evil proceed not from a premise about ‘all the evils of the world’, but from a premise about a single horrible event. They take the form, ‘If there were a God, that would not have happened’. In this chapter, it is conceded that even if Theist's arguments in the two previous chapters are indisputably correct, they do not refute the local argument, which is an argument of a quite different kind. The central argument of the chapter is a defence of the following thesis: if Theist's response to the global argument is accepted, it provides materials from which a reply to the local argument can be constructed. This reply turns on considerations of vagueness much like those considered in philosophical discussions of the sorites paradox.

This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts ...
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This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts from the materialist “struggle for existence” to Henri Bergson’s more affirmative vitalist philosophy of creative (or emergent) evolution. Just as Martian civilization represents a transfiguration of the Darwinian view of the evolutionary process, the ever developing and open-ended character of the creation on Venus suggests that this new Eden is a sublimated version of creative evolution itself. In this way Lewis searches out the common ground, as well as the defining differences, between Christian tradition and the momentous intellectual changes that inverted the traditional priority of Being over Becoming at the turn of the twentieth century. As in the first novel, Lewis is “raising” or “taking up” the same evolutionary view he is simultaneously putting down.Less

Perelandra : Paradise Reframed: Keeping Time on Planet Venus

Sanford Schwartz

Published in print: 2009-07-01

This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts from the materialist “struggle for existence” to Henri Bergson’s more affirmative vitalist philosophy of creative (or emergent) evolution. Just as Martian civilization represents a transfiguration of the Darwinian view of the evolutionary process, the ever developing and open-ended character of the creation on Venus suggests that this new Eden is a sublimated version of creative evolution itself. In this way Lewis searches out the common ground, as well as the defining differences, between Christian tradition and the momentous intellectual changes that inverted the traditional priority of Being over Becoming at the turn of the twentieth century. As in the first novel, Lewis is “raising” or “taking up” the same evolutionary view he is simultaneously putting down.

This chapter examines interpretations of the temple motifs in the expulsion narrative. These interpretations are not strictly exegetical, but employ the symbols of the expulsion narrative in ...
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This chapter examines interpretations of the temple motifs in the expulsion narrative. These interpretations are not strictly exegetical, but employ the symbols of the expulsion narrative in affirming the connection between the temple and Eden. There are three main manifestations of this association explored in this chapter: Eden as the former temple, Eden as the present temple, and the future temple as a reconfigured Eden. This chapter argues that the theme of Eden and the temple appears in a variety of ancient materials, including archeology, iconography, and texts. Finally, the persistent inclusion of the temple in Jewish and Christian interpretation of the expulsion narrative argues for the original centrality of the temple in the Eden narrative of Genesis 2–3.Less

Eden and the Temple

Peter Thacher Lanfer

Published in print: 2012-08-23

This chapter examines interpretations of the temple motifs in the expulsion narrative. These interpretations are not strictly exegetical, but employ the symbols of the expulsion narrative in affirming the connection between the temple and Eden. There are three main manifestations of this association explored in this chapter: Eden as the former temple, Eden as the present temple, and the future temple as a reconfigured Eden. This chapter argues that the theme of Eden and the temple appears in a variety of ancient materials, including archeology, iconography, and texts. Finally, the persistent inclusion of the temple in Jewish and Christian interpretation of the expulsion narrative argues for the original centrality of the temple in the Eden narrative of Genesis 2–3.

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion ...
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Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion references Venus, the Virgin Mary as the “Rose without Thorns,” the Romance of the Rose, and Christ as the New Adam, among other topics.Less

Miracle of the Rose

Frank Graziano

Published in print: 2004-02-12

Rose and flower tropes are pursued into “deflowering,” paradise-garden and edenic imagery, the odor of sanctity, and the miracle after which St. Rose of Lima’s name was changed. The discussion references Venus, the Virgin Mary as the “Rose without Thorns,” the Romance of the Rose, and Christ as the New Adam, among other topics.